Tweisi showcases Kingdom’s cultural vision, accomplishments in face of crisis during ALECSO conference

AMMAN — Minister of Culture Bassem Tweisi on Monday said that the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the importance of the role of culture as “an advanced line of defence” against the crisis.

He noted that the Ministry of Culture has developed a new vision for cultural services, in continuation of the success achieved by Jordan in providing “an advanced example” in the face of the pandemic, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Speaking at the extraordinary conference of Arab Ministers of Culture held remotely by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO), Tweisi noted that “the human battle against this pandemic is indivisible”.

During the conference, chaired by Egyptian Minister of Culture Enas Abdel Dayem and attended by Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmad Aboul Gheit and ALESCO Director General Mohammad Weld Omar, Tweisi outlined the lessons learned from the Jordanian experience in the current exceptional circumstances.

These lessons are related to cultural values, which “represent the strongest contributor in the battle of awareness and prevention against the virus”, the minister added.

He pointed to packages implemented by the ministry during the crisis within the cultural adaptation programmes.

The packages included awareness and education programmes and programmes for the optimal investment of time and for mitigating the effects of social distancing using all possible tools to cope with the crisis and the new health requirements it has imposed on daily life, the minister said.

The programmes created “important creative climates” that discovered thousands of talented people of all ages, as more than 100,000 people have participated in a series of motivational creative competitions, he said.